


with a little help from my friend(s)

by onemanbellarmy



Series: Morgenstern Pride [2]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, MPride universe, aka colorguard!Clary, and izzy shows her, basically clary doesnt know how to makeup, yay for strong girl friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 02:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4589238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onemanbellarmy/pseuds/onemanbellarmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one told Clary that joining color guard meant that she'd have to learn how to do her own makeup. If it wasn't for how much she loved the activity, she just might have quit in disgust; she would have been perfectly happy going through high school without ever figuring that stuff out. As it was, she figured it was time to let Izzy teach her a few things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	with a little help from my friend(s)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [terafonne (lexiconicality)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexiconicality/gifts).



> Happy (super) late birthday, Claire! Here's that fic idea that's been floating around between us for probably a year now; I finally got off my lazy butt long enough to write it for you! To all - hope you enjoy, even if you don't understand all the veiled references and inside jokes :P Title from the song by the Beatles.

Having received her best friend’s heads-up text, Isabelle wasn’t at all startled to hear Clary’s voice in the hallway. “Izzy, open the door, would ya?”

“It’s open!”

A huff. “Can’t you just — Oh. Thanks, Alec.”

The eldest Lightwood raised an eyebrow at his sister over Clary’s head before closing the door behind her, leaving them to their girls’ afternoon in. Or, as Clary had texted, _emergency makeup tutoring session._

“So.” Isabelle tossed her English homework aside. “That your stuff?”

“This is mostly my mom’s,” Clary began as she deposited her armload onto Izzy’s unmade bed. “She said she’ll take me to get my own set, or I could go with you, or —”

Without looking up from the palettes and tubes she was sifting through, Isabelle nodded. “It’ll do for now. Good thing you look so much like your mom — same skin tone and all, lucky you — or this wouldn’t work as well. I mean, you might need a few more things, but this should be good until we can take a trip to the mall.”

“Cool. Where do we start?”

Izzy frowned, studying her best friend’s face. Finally she nodded resolutely and pointed to the floor in front of her full-length mirror. “Sit.” She held up a few products. “These are all foundations — awesome, you’ve got BB cream. This should be fine, your skin’s pretty clear at the moment so you don’t need too much coverage.” As she spoke, Isabelle pulled open the top drawer of the little plastic chest to reveal an array of makeup brushes that she then let her fingers drift across before selecting one. “And _this_ ” — she demonstrated as she continued to explain — “is ideally how you apply foundation, BB cream, and the like.”

“Ideally?” Clary asked, trying not to open her mouth or move her facial muscles too much.

“Well, it doesn’t always work out as you like. Sometimes you have to change it up based on your skin condition at the time, or if you’re using a different product or brush. Really, it takes some trial and error, especially in the beginning.”

“That’s terrific, considering I won’t have time for _trial and error_ in the rushed half hour before guard competitions.”

“I heard the upperclassmen are really nice about helping out, though?”

“They are, and they have been — though we’ve only been doing friends-and-family home shows and football game halftime performances so far — but they did warn us that it gets hectic between morning rehearsal and showtime, and so they have to do their own stuff before they can even think about helping us out.”

“Fair enough. Okay, I don’t think you need blush — not like it makes a huge difference when most of the crowd’s as far as they have been.”

“Especially if you’re in the back like I am,” Clary added drily. “Let’s keep this as minimal and easy as possible for my sake and sanity, if we could?”

“Noted. Okay, eyebrows — most people don’t bother, but it makes _such_ a big difference; if you’ll just let me —”

Clary considered for all of two seconds. “You can show me, and then maybe I’ll take a look at the end product and decide if I want to do it for shows? If it doesn’t magically make me pretty, I might just save it for regionals and other big shows.”

“Sounds good to me. So this is the kind of brush you want to use on your brows, and this is eyebrow gel.”

After just a few seconds, Clary couldn’t argue that she saw a difference. Her brows were more shapely and seemed to actually serve a purpose in defining her features — but yeah, not quite enough so to make a reluctant amateur makeup artist want to mess with them every weekend. “Yeah, maybe just big shows.”

Izzy mock-pouted, but moved on. “Okay, this is the fun part — eyes!” She dug through the palettes — “Nice, you have a natural palette; you’ll use it a lot. Oh, and if you wanted to get in some extra practice, it’s subtle enough for everyday use” — and emerged, frowning, with a bright one whose vivid colors made Clary grimace. “What’s this? Looks brand new, and somehow I can’t quite picture Jocelyn using it.”

“Yeah, that’s this year’s show makeup palette. The main reason I came to you today.” Quickly finding the picture on her phone, Clary passed it over for her best friend’s perusal.

“Oooh, this is pretty! It’ll look so great on the field.”

“ _If_ we freshmen can figure out how to do it properly.”

“You’re in good hands,” Isabelle promised. “See, it’s not that hard — kind of like those copy-the-model coloring things we did in elementary school.” And as she followed the reference image’s steps, it really didn’t seem so hard. Clary had no doubt, though, that not paying closer attention now would probably come back to bite her in the butt. (But today was not that day, and she figured she could cross that bridge when she came to it.)

“Okay, now eyeliner.”

This evidently involved Clary closing her eyes, so she was slightly worried as to how she was supposed to learn how to apply it herself.

“Last touch — lip color.”

This was simple enough — so much so that Izzy even trusted Clary to try and do it herself, though she couldn’t resist piping up with a few pointers.

“And there you have it.”

Clary blinked at her reflection. “I look —”

“Pretty dang hot.”

“I wasn’t going to use those exact words, but, um, yeah.”

“See?” Isabelle grinned and patted her friend’s shoulder, teasingly condescending. “There’s a reason I’ve wanted to teach you this forever.”

“Yeah, yeah, rub it in, why don’t you. Hey, while we’re here, wanna help me figure out how to do the show hair too?”

"Sure, why not. It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Better than hanging out with your best girlfriend? I'm hurt, Izzy."

Though neither of them was the giggling type, they did exchange smirks. Really, how did people sustain strong relationships without banter?

* * *

 

And that was that, they'd thought. 

Clary knew a decent amount of the makeup basics that Izzy could teach her, and — with an occasional bit of help — she’d be able to figure out the rest.

Then sophomore year came around, bringing with it a new guard instructor who wanted a completely different style of makeup and hair.

 _MAKEUP EMERGENCY,_ Clary texted.

 _Be there in five_ came Isabelle’s almost immediate reply.

* * *

By now, Isabelle was pleased to see, Clary had built up her own arsenal of beauty and hair products. Even better, she’d already done her basics — foundation, concealer, lipstick — by the time reinforcements arrived.

“Alright, let’s see what we’re dealing with here.” Isabelle blinked at the picture, scanned it over again, and shook her head. “Wow. Okay. One step at a time, yeah?”

And somehow, they figured it.

It took a few more tries, but eventually they managed to reach a point where Clary could replicate it decently enough for herself.

“So, wanna do my makeup for junior prom?”

Izzy raised an eyebrow, secretly pleased to be asked. “You know how to do your own makeup.”

“Yeah, but you’re still better at it. C’mon, I’ll do your hair.”

Well, Clary had (surprisingly enough) turned out to be rather proficient with hair. “Alright,” Izzy consented. As though it had been a tough decision. “Let’s go dress shopping together, too?”

“Of course. Hey, let’s wear sneakers. Just because.”

“I’m in.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my [Tumblr for the mini-aesthetics that go with this oneshot!](http://sailorvegeta13.tumblr.com/post/126885192839/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-oneshot-from)


End file.
